Академический Документы
Профессиональный Документы
Культура Документы
Adopt: Technology
The intelligent use of technology can transform and improve almost
every aspect of school, modernizing the nature of curriculum, student
assignments, parental connections, and administration. Online
curricula now include lesson plans, simulations, and demonstrations for
classroom use and review. With online connections, students can share
their work and communicate more productively and creatively.
Teachers can maintain records and assessments using software tools
and stay in close touch with students and families via email and
voicemail. Schools can reduce administrative costs by using
technology tools, as other fields have done, and provide more funds for
the classroom.
From Edutopias Big Ideas
All
the above are certainly true. But the biggest question about
technology and schools in the 21st century is not so much What can it
do? but rather When will it get to do it? We all know life will be
much different by the end of the 21st century. Will school? How close
will we be to Edutopia?
That answer is up to us. At this point some of the vision is there, and
some of the pieces exist. So whats missing? To answer this question,
it helps to look at the typical process of technology adoption (not that
schools are typical of anything, but it helps.)
Technology Adoption Curve
1
Marc Prensky
Adopt and Adapt
2005 Marc Prensky
_____________________________________________________________________________
Dabbling
Doing old things in old ways
Doing old things in new ways
Doing new things in new ways.
Marc Prensky
Adopt and Adapt
2005 Marc Prensky
_____________________________________________________________________________
Marc Prensky
Adopt and Adapt
2005 Marc Prensky
_____________________________________________________________________________
What are some of the other old things now making their way into the
schools in new ways? Old-fashioned expository writing and diaries are
being turned into into Blogs. Shared blackboards are being turned into
Wikis. Team meetings are being turned into NetMeetings. Outlining and
creative thinking is being turned into Inspiration (i.e. the software.)
But there are many more old things being done in new ways in todays
kids lives that are not yet making their way into our schools. These are
things that our Digital Native kids have invented or adopted as their
own, including: buying school clothes, supplies and even schoolwork on
eBay and the Internet; exchanging music on P2P sites; building games
with modding tools; setting up meetings and dates online; posting
personal information and creations for others to check out; meeting
people through their cell phones; building up libraries of music and
movies; working together in self-formed teams in modding and
massively multiplayer online role playing games; creating and using
online reputation systems; peer rating of comments; online gaming;
screen saver analysis; photoblogging; programming; exploring; and
even transgressing and testing social norms.
An important question is how many of these old things in new ways
will ever be integrated into our instruction or even understood by
educators! But if we are to move the helpful adoption of technology
forward, it is crucial for the educations to listen, observe and try what
the kids have already figured out.
Barriers
If technology adoption by our schools is so important, whats standing
in the way of our making more, and faster, progress? Two things, I
would assert: one technological, the other social.
The Big Technological Barrier: True One-to-One (plus)
The first element missing element is true one-to-one. This means
each students having a device that he or she can work on, keep,
customize, and take home a device that is basically theirs for the
year, or forever. With the advent of cell phones and iPods, this really
means many devices to one student, all of which hopefully get used in
the educational process.
The big point here is that any ratio that involves sharing computers, as
we currently have in so many of our schools, will prevent the
technology revolution in schools from happeningdespite the fact, as
4
Marc Prensky
Adopt and Adapt
2005 Marc Prensky
_____________________________________________________________________________
Marc Prensky
Adopt and Adapt
2005 Marc Prensky
_____________________________________________________________________________
Marc Prensky
Adopt and Adapt
2005 Marc Prensky
_____________________________________________________________________________
what were talking about is creation new things in new ways. Wed
be smart to begin by throwing out almost all the bathwater, given that
theres hardly any baby there worth keeping, and some radical places
have done this. Change is the order of the day in kids lives, and it
ought to be in their schools, with every class, every school, every
district and every state trying something, and then reporting to all of
us on a timely basis what is working and what isnt (we do all have an
Internet, after all, for this.)
Some may worry that, if we do all this experimentation, will the kids
educations be hurt? When, they might ask, will we have time for the
curriculum, and for all the standardized testing being mandated?
Heres my answer:
If we really offered our kids some great experiments, like, for example,
that they could learn about nanotechnology, bioethics, genetic
medicine and neuroscience in neat interactive ways from real experts,
and that they could develop their skills in programming, knowledge
filtering, using their connectivity and maximizing their hardware, and
that they could do these with cutting-edge technology that was
powerful, miniaturized, customizable and one-to-one, I would bet a lot
they would agree to achieve, and would achieve, completing the
normal curriculum in half the time or less, with high test scores all
around (to get to the good stuff, the better kids would work with and
pull up the ones who were behind.)
In other words, if we truly offer our kids an Edutopia worth having, I
believe our students will work as hard as they can to get there!
So lets not just adopt technology into our schools. Lets adapt it,
push it, pull it, iterate with it, experiment with it, test it and re-do it,
until we reach the point where we and our kids truly feel weve done
our very best. And then lets do it some more.
And lets do it quickly, so the 22 nd century doesnt catch us by surprise
with too much of our work undone.
A lot of work? Absolutely. But our kids deserve no less!
Marc Prensky is an internationally acclaimed thought leader, speaker, writer, consultant, and game
designer in the critical areas of education and learning. He is the author of Digital Game-Based Learning
(McGraw Hill, 2001) and the upcoming Dont Bother Me, Mom, Im Learning (Paragon, 2005). Marc is
the founder and CEO of Games2train, a game-based learning company, whose clients include IBM, Bank
7
Marc Prensky
Adopt and Adapt
2005 Marc Prensky
_____________________________________________________________________________
of America, Pfizer , the U.S. Department of Defense and the LA and Florida Virtual Schools. He is also the
creator of the sites www.SocialImpactGames.com, and www.GamesParentsTeachers.com . Marc holds an
MBA from Harvard and a Masters in Teaching from Yale. More of his writings can be found at
www.marcprensky.com/writing/default.asp . Marc can be contacted at marc@games2train.com .